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Friday, July 10, 2015

Vatican City, 10 July 2015 (VIS) “The
Eucharist, bread broken for the life of the world” is the theme of
the Fifth National Eucharistic Congress of Bolivia, which the Holy
Father inaugurated yesterday with the celebration of Mass in Plaza
del Cristo Redentor in Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Francis dedicated his
homily to the sharing of bread, which Jesus distributed to the
multitude with the same hands He raised to heaven to bless God,
before almost two million faithful gathered in the square and in the
adjacent streets where maxi-screens had been installed.

The readings and prayers of the
celebration were in Spanish and in indigenous languages: Guarani,
Quechua and Aimara. The passage from the Gospel of St. Mark recounted
the multiplication of the loaves and fishes.

“We have come from a variety of
places, areas and villages, to celebrate the living presence of God
among us”, said the Pope. “We have travelled from our homes and
communities to be together as God’s holy People. The cross and the
mission image remind us of all those communities which were born of
the name of Jesus in these lands. We are their heirs. The Gospel
which we just heard speaks of a situation much like our own. Like
those four thousand people who gathered to hear Jesus, we too want to
listen to His words and to receive His life. Like them, we are in the
presence of the Master, the Bread of Life.

“I am moved to see so many mothers
carrying their children on their shoulders, like so many of you here.
Carrying them, you bring your lives, the future of your people. You
bring all your joys and hopes. You bring the blessing of the earth
and all its fruits. You bring the work of your hands, hands which
work today in order to weave tomorrow’s hopes and dreams. But those
people’s shoulders were also weighed down by bitter disappointments
and sorrows, scarred by experiences of injustice and of justice
denied. They bore on their shoulders all the joy and pain of their
land. You too bear the memory of your own people. Because every
people has a memory, a memory which is passed on from generation to
generation, a memory which continues to move forward. Frequently we
tire of this journey. Frequently we lack the strength to keep hope
alive. How often have we experienced situations which dull our
memory, weaken our hope and make us lose our reason for rejoicing!
And then a kind of sadness takes over. We think only of ourselves, we
forget that we are a people which is loved, a chosen people. And the
loss of that memory disorients us, it closes our heart to others, and
especially to the poor.

“We may feel the way the disciples
did, when they saw the crowds of people gathered there. They begged
Jesus to send them away, since it was impossible to provide food for
so many people. Faced with so many kinds of hunger in our world, we
can say to ourselves: 'Things don’t add up; we will never manage,
there is nothing to be done'. And so our hearts yield to despair. A
despairing heart finds it easy to succumb to a way of thinking which
is becoming ever more widespread in our world. It is a mentality in
which everything has a price, everything can be bought, everything is
negotiable. This way of thinking has room only for a select few,
while it discards all those who are 'unproductive', unsuitable or
unworthy, since clearly those people don’t 'add up'. But Jesus once
more turns to us and says: 'They don’t need to go away; you
yourselves, give them something to eat'.

"Those words of Jesus have a
particular resonance for us today: No one needs to go away, no one
has to be discarded; you yourselves, give them something to eat.
Jesus speaks these words to us, here in this square. Yes, no one has
to be discarded; you, give them something to eat. Jesus’ way of
seeing things leaves no room for the mentality which would cut bait
on the weak and those most in need. Taking the lead, He gives us His
own example, He shows us the way forward. What He does can be summed
up in three words. He takes a little bread and some fish, He blesses
them and then gives them to His disciples to share with the crowd.
This is how the miracle takes place. It is not magic or sorcery.
With these three gestures, Jesus is able to turn a mentality which
discards others into a mindset of communion and community. I would
like briefly to look at each of these actions.

“Taking. This is the starting-point:
Jesus takes His own and their lives very seriously. He looks at them
in the eye, and He knows what they are experiencing, what they are
feeling. He sees in those eyes all that is present in the memory and
the hearts of his people. He looks at it, He ponders it. He thinks of
all the good which they can do, all the good upon which they can
build. But He is not so much concerned about material objects,
cultural treasures or lofty ideas. He is concerned with people. The
greatest wealth of a society is measured by the lives of its people,
it is gauged by its elderly, who pass on their knowledge and the
memory of their people to the young. Jesus never detracts from the
dignity of anyone, no matter how little they possess or seem capable
of contributing.

“Blessing. Jesus takes what is given
Him and blesses His heavenly Father. He knows that everything is
God’s gift. So He does not treat things as “objects”, but as
part of a life which is the fruit of God’s merciful love. He values
them. He goes beyond mere appearances, and in this gesture of
blessing and praise He asks the Father for the gift of the Holy
Spirit. Blessing has this double aspect: thanksgiving and
transformative power. t is a recognition that life is always a gift
which, when placed in the hands of God, starts to multiply. Our
Father never abandons us; he makes everything multiply.

“Giving. With Jesus, there can be no
'taking' which is not a 'blessing', and no blessing which is not also
a 'giving'. Blessing is always mission, its purpose is to share what
we ourselves have received. For it is only in giving, in sharing,
that we find the source of our joy and come to experience salvation.
Giving makes it possible to refresh the memory of God’s holy
people, called and sent forth to bring the joy of salvation to
others. The hands which Jesus lifts to bless God in heaven are the
same hands which gave bread to the hungry crowd. We can imagine how
those people passed the loaves of bread and the fish from hand to
hand, until they came to those farthest away. Jesus generated a kind
of electrical current among His followers, as they shared what they
had, made it a gift for others, and so ate their fill. Unbelievably,
there were even leftovers: enough to fill seven baskets. A memory
which is taken, blessed and given always satisfies people’s hunger.

“The Eucharist is 'bread broken for
the life of the world'. That is the theme of the Fifth Eucharistic
Congress to be held in Tarija, which today we inaugurate. The
Eucharist is a sacrament of communion, which draws us out of our
individualism in order to live together as disciples. It gives us the
certainty that all that we have, all that we are, if it is taken,
blessed and given, can, by God’s power, by the power of His love,
become bread of life for all. The Church is a community of
remembrance. Hence, in fidelity to the Lord’s command, she never
ceases to say: 'Do this in remembrance of me'. Generation after
generation, throughout the world, she celebrates the mystery of the
Bread of Life. She makes it present and she gives it to us. Jesus
asks us to share in His life, and through us He allows this gift to
multiply in our world. We are not isolated individuals, separated
from one another, but rather a people of remembrance, a remembrance
ever renewed and ever shared with others. A life of remembrance
needs others. It demands exchange, encounter and a genuine solidarity
capable of entering into the mindset of taking, blessing and giving.
It demands the logic of love.

Pope Francis concluded his homily by
recalling that Mary, like many of the mothers present, “bore in her
heart the memory of her people. She pondered the life of her Son.
She personally experienced God’s grandeur and joyfully proclaimed
that He 'fills the hungry with good things'. Today may Mary be our
model. Like her, may we trust in the goodness of the Lord, who does
great things with the lowliness of his servants”.

Vatican City, 10 July 2015 (VIS) - “How
can you love God, whom you do not see, if you do not love your
brother whom you do see?” was the question Pope Francis posed to
the four thousand Bolivian priests, men and women religious and
seminarians whom he met yesterday afternoon in the “Coliseo Don
Bosco”, a school managed by Salesian Fathers. The Holy Father
commented on the passage from the Gospel about the blind man
Bartimaeus, a beggar who, hearing Jesus approach with the apostles
and a large crowd of followers, calls out to be healed.

“If we translate this, forcing the
language”, said the Pope, “around Jesus we find the bishops,
priests, nuns, seminarians, active laypeople, all those who follow
Jesus, listening to Him, and the faithful people of God”.

“Two things about this story jump out
at us and make an impression”, remarked Francis. “On the one
hand, there is the cry of a beggar, and on the other, the different
reactions of the disciples. Let us think of the different reactions
of the bishops, the priests, the nuns, the seminarians, and the cries
that are heard or that go unheeded. It is as if the Evangelist wanted
to show us the effect which Bartimaeus’ cry had on people’s
lives, on the lives of Jesus’ followers. How did they react when
faced with the suffering of that man on the side of the road, in his
misery, whom nobody noticed, to whom nobody gave anything … who did
not enter into that circle of the Lord's followers”.

The Gospel tells us of the three
responses to the cry of the blind man: they passed by, they told him
to be quiet, and they told him to take heart and get up.

“They passed by. Perhaps some of
those who passed by did not even hear his shouting, because they were
not listening. They were with Jesus … they wanted to hear Jesus.
They did not listen. Passing by is the response of indifference, of
avoiding other people’s problems because they do not affect us. It
is not my problem. We do not hear them, we do not recognise them.
Deafness. Here we have the temptation to see suffering as something
natural, to take injustice for granted. And yes, there are people
like this. I am here with God, with my consecrated life, and yes, it
is natural that there are sick people … the poor … people who
suffer; and so it is also natural that a cry or a plea for help does
not attract my attention. And we say to ourselves, 'This is nothing
unusual; this is the way things are'. It is the response born of a
blind, closed heart, a heart which has lost the ability to be touched
and hence the possibility to change. A heart used to passing by
without letting itself be touched; a life which passes from one thing
to the next, without ever sinking roots in the lives of the people
around us, simply because it is part of the elite that follows the
Lord. We could call this 'the spirituality of zapping'. It is always
on the move, but it has nothing to show for it. There are people who
keep up with the latest news, the most recent best sellers, but they
never manage to connect with others, to strike up a relationship, to
get involved, even with the Lord they are following, because deafness
spreads.

“You may say to me, 'But these people
were following the Master, they were busy listening to the words of
the Master. They were intent on Him'. I think that this is one of the
most challenging things about Christian spirituality. The Evangelist
John tells us, 'How can you love God, Whom you do not see, if you do
not love your brother whom you do see?'. One of the great temptations
we encounter along the way, as we follow Jesus, is to separate these
two things – listening to God and listening to our brother –
which belong together. We need to be aware of this. The way we listen
to God the Father is how we should listen to His faithful people. To
pass by, without hearing the pain of our people, without sinking
roots in their lives and in their world, is like listening to the
word of God without letting it take root and bear fruit in our
hearts. Like a tree, a life without roots is a one which withers and
dies”.

The second response to Bartimaeus’
cry was to tell him to keep quiet. “Be quiet, don't bother us,
don't disturb us, we who are engaged in community prayer, we who have
attained a high level of spirituality. Do not bother us, do not
disturb. Unlike the first response, this one hears, acknowledges, and
makes contact with the cry of another person. It recognises that he
or she is there, but reacts simply by scolding. There are bishops,
priests, nuns, Popes, who wag their finger like this. … And the
poor faithful people of God, how often they are affected by the bad
mood or the personal situation of one of Jesus' followers. It is the
attitude of some leaders of God’s people; they continually scold
others, hurl reproaches at them, tell them to be quiet. 'Madam, take
your crying child out of the church while I am preaching'. As if the
cry of a child were not a sublime form of sermon'.

This is the drama of the isolated
consciousness, of those disciples who think that the life of Jesus is
only for those deserve it. At its basis there is a profound disdain
for the holy faithful people of God. They seem to believe there is
only room for the 'worthy', for the 'better people', and little by
little they separate and differentiate themselves from the others.
They have made their identity a badge of superiority. They are not
pastors, but foremen: 'I am here, now get into your place'. They
hear, but they don’t listen. The need to show that they are
different has closed their heart. Their need to tell themselves, 'I
am not like that person, like those people', not only cuts them off
from the cry of their people, from their tears, but most of all from
their reasons for rejoicing. Laughing with those who laugh, weeping
with those who weep; all this is part of the mystery of a priestly
heart”.

Thirdly, they told him to take heart
and get up. “It is not so much a direct response to the cry of
Bartimaeus as an echo, or a reflection, of the way Jesus Himself
responded to the pleading of the blind beggar. In those who told him
to take heart and get up, the beggar’s cry issued in a word, an
invitation, a new and changed way of responding to God’s holy
People. Unlike those who simply passed by, the Gospel says that Jesus
stopped and asked what was happening. He stopped when someone cried
out to Him. Jesus singled him out from the nameless crowd and got
involved in his life. And far from ordering him to keep quiet, He
asked him, 'What do you want me to do for you?'. He didn’t have to
show that He was different, somehow apart; He didn’t decide whether
Bartimaeus was worthy or not before speaking to him. He simply asked
him a question, looked at him and sought to come into his life, to
share his lot. And by doing this He gradually restored the man’s
lost dignity; He included him. Far from looking down on him, Jesus
was moved to identify with the man’s problems and thus to show the
transforming power of mercy. There can be no compassion without
stopping, hearing and showing solidarity with the other. Compassion
is not about zapping, it is not about silencing pain, it is about the
logic of love. A logic, a way of thinking and feeling, which is not
grounded in fear but in the freedom born of love and of desire to put
the good of others before all else. A logic born of not being afraid
to draw near to the pain of our people. Even if often this means no
more than standing at their side and praying with them.

“This is the logic of discipleship,
it is what the Holy Spirit does with us and in us”, emphasised the
Pope. “We are witnesses of this. One day Jesus saw us on the side
of the road, wallowing in our own pain and misery, in our
indifference. He did not close his ear to our cries. He stopped, drew
near and asked what He could do for us. And thanks to many witnesses,
who told us, 'Take heart; get up', gradually we experienced this
merciful love, this transforming love, which enabled us to see the
light. We are witnesses not of an ideology, of a recipe, of a
particular theology. We are witnesses to the healing and merciful
love of Jesus. We are witnesses of His working in the lives of our
communities. This is the pedagogy of the Master, this is the pedagogy
which God uses with His people. It leads us to passing from
distracted zapping to the point where we can say to others: 'Take
heart; get up. The Master is calling you'. Not so that we can be
special, not so that we can be better than others, not so that we can
be God’s functionaries, but only because we are grateful witnesses
to the mercy which changed us. … And when you live in this way,
there is joy and good cheer.

“On this journey we are not alone. We
help one another by our example and by our prayers. We are surrounded
by a cloud of witnesses. Let us think of Blessed Nazaria Ignacia de
Santa Teresa de Jesus, who dedicated her life to the proclamation of
God’s Kingdom through her care for the aged, her 'kettle of the
poor' for the hungry, her homes for orphaned children, her hospitals
for wounded soldiers and her creation of a women’s trade union to
promote the welfare of women. Let us also think of Venerable Virginia
Blanco Tardio, who was completely dedicated to the evangelisation and
care of the poor and the sick”.

“These women, and so many other
persons like them – anonymous, many of them – who follow Jesus,
are an encouragement to us along our way”, exclaimed the bishop of
Rome. “May we press forward with the help and cooperation of all.
For the Lord wants to use us to make his light reach to every corner
of our world”.

Vatican City, 10 July 2015 (VIS) –
The Pope's day in Santa Cruz de la Sierra concluded with his
participation in the Second World Meeting of Popular Movements,
organised in collaboration with the Pontifical Council “Justice and
Peace” and the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences, attended by
delegates from popular movements from all over the world representing
workers in precarious employment and the informal economy, landless
farmers, “villeros” (inhabitants of poor areas), indigenous
peoples, immigrants, and social movements.

Also present were Cardinal Peter Kodwo
Appiah Turkson, president of “Justice and Peace”, and Bishop
Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy. The
first meeting took place in the Vatican in October 2014, and was
attended by the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, who yesterday also
presented a discourse in the Expo Feria centre, hosting the event in
which three thousand people have participated.

The following is the full text of the
discourse given by Pope Francis:

“Good afternoon! Several months ago,
we met in Rome, and I remember that first meeting. In the meantime I
have kept you in my thoughts and prayers. I am happy to see you
again, here, as you discuss the best ways to overcome the grave
situations of injustice experienced by the excluded throughout our
world. Thank you, President Evo Morales, for your efforts to make
this meeting possible. During our first meeting in Rome, I sensed
something very beautiful: fraternity, determination, commitment, a
thirst for justice. Today, in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, I sense it
once again. I thank you for that. I also know, from the Pontifical
Council for Justice and Peace headed by Cardinal Turkson, that many
people in the Church feel very close to the popular movements. That
makes me very happy! I am pleased to see the Church opening her doors
to all of you, embracing you, accompanying you and establishing in
each diocese, in every justice and peace commission, a genuine,
ongoing and serious cooperation with popular movements. I ask
everyone, bishops, priests and laity, as well as the social
organisations of the urban and rural peripheries, to deepen this
encounter.

“Today God has granted that we meet
again. The Bible tells us that God hears the cry of his people, and I
wish to join my voice to yours in calling for land, lodging and
labour for all our brothers and sisters. I said it and I repeat it:
these are sacred rights. It is important, it is well worth fighting
for them. May the cry of the excluded be heard in Latin America and
throughout the world.

“Let us begin by acknowledging that
change is needed. Here I would clarify, lest there be any
misunderstanding, that I am speaking about problems common to all
Latin Americans and, more generally, to humanity as a whole. They are
global problems which today no one state can resolve on its own. With
this clarification, I now propose that we ask the following
questions.

“Do we realise that something is
wrong in a world where there are so many farmworkers without land, so
many families without a home, so many labourers without rights, so
many persons whose dignity is not respected? Do we realise that
something is wrong where so many senseless wars are being fought and
acts of fratricidal violence are taking place on our very doorstep?
Do we realise something is wrong when the soil, water, air and living
creatures of our world are under constant threat? So let’s not be
afraid to say it: we need change; we want change.

“In your letters and in our meetings,
you have mentioned the many forms of exclusion and injustice which
you experience in the workplace, in neighbourhoods and throughout the
land. They are many and diverse, just as many and diverse are the
ways in which you confront them. Yet there is an invisible thread
joining every one of those forms of exclusion: can we recognise it?
These are not isolated issues. I wonder whether we can see that these
destructive realities are part of a system which has become global.
Do we realise that that system has imposed the mentality of profit at
any price, with no concern for social exclusion or the destruction of
nature?

“If such is the case, I would insist,
let us not be afraid to say it: we want change, real change,
structural change. This system is by now intolerable: farmworkers
find it intolerable, labourers find it intolerable, communities find
it intolerable, peoples find it intolerable … The earth itself –
our sister, Mother Earth, as St. Francis would say – also finds it
intolerable. We want change in our lives, in our neighbourhoods, in
our everyday reality. We want a change which can affect the entire
world, since global interdependence calls for global answers to local
problems. The globalisation of hope, a hope which springs up from
peoples and takes root among the poor, must replace the globalisation
of exclusion and indifference.

“Today I wish to reflect with you on
the change we want and need. You know that recently I wrote about the
problems of climate change. But now I would like to speak of change
in another sense. Positive change, a change which is good for us, a
change – we can say – which is redemptive. Because we need it. I
know that you are looking for change, and not just you alone: in my
different meetings, in my different travels, I have sensed an
expectation, a longing, a yearning for change, in people throughout
the world. Even within that ever smaller minority which believes that
the present system is beneficial, there is a widespread sense of
dissatisfaction and even despondency. Many people are hoping for a
change capable of releasing them from the bondage of individualism
and the despondency it spawns.

“Time, my brothers and sisters, seems
to be running out; we are not yet tearing one another apart, but we
are tearing apart our common home. Today, the scientific community
realises what the poor have long told us: harm, perhaps irreversible
harm, is being done to the ecosystem. The earth, entire peoples and
individual persons are being brutally punished. And behind all this
pain, death and destruction there is the stench of what Basil of
Caesarea called 'the dung of the devil'. An unfettered pursuit of
money rules. The service of the common good is left behind. Once
capital becomes an idol and guides people’s decisions, once greed
for money presides over the entire socio-economic system, it ruins
society, it condemns and enslaves men and women, it destroys human
fraternity, it sets people against one another and, as we clearly
see, it even puts at risk our common home.

“I do not need to go on describing
the evil effects of this subtle dictatorship: you are well aware of
them. Nor is it enough to point to the structural causes of today’s
social and environmental crisis. We are suffering from an excess of
diagnosis, which at times leads us to multiply words and to revel in
pessimism and negativity. Looking at the daily news we think that
there is nothing to be done, except to take care of ourselves and the
little circle of our family and friends.

“What can I do, as collector of
paper, old clothes or used metal, a recycler, about all these
problems if I barely make enough money to put food on the table? What
can I do as a craftsman, a street vendor, a trucker, a downtrodden
worker, if I do not even enjoy workers’ rights? What can I do, a
farmwife, a native woman, a fisher who can hardly fight the
domination of the big corporations? What can I do from my little
home, my shanty, my hamlet, my settlement, when I daily meet with
discrimination and marginalisation? What can be done by those
students, those young people, those activists, those missionaries who
come to my neighbourhood with their hearts full of hopes and dreams,
but without any real solution for my problems? A lot! They can do a
lot. You, the lowly, the exploited, the poor and underprivileged, can
do, and are doing, a lot. I would even say that the future of
humanity is in great measure in your own hands, through your ability
to organise and carry out creative alternatives, through your daily
efforts to ensure the three 'L’s' (labour, lodging, land) and
through your proactive participation in the great processes of change
on the national, regional and global levels. Don’t lose heart!

“You are sowers of change. Here in
Bolivia I have heard a phrase which I like: 'process of change'.
Change seen not as something which will one day result from any one
political decision or change in social structure. We know from
painful experience that changes of structure which are not
accompanied by a sincere conversion of mind and heart sooner or later
end up in bureaucratisation, corruption and failure. That is why I
like the image of a 'process', where the drive to sow, to water seeds
which others will see sprout, replaces the ambition to occupy every
available position of power and to see immediate results. Each of us
is just one part of a complex and differentiated whole, interacting
in time: peoples who struggle to find meaning, a destiny, and to live
with dignity, to 'live well'.

“As members of popular movements, you
carry out your work inspired by fraternal love, which you show in
opposing social injustice. When we look into the eyes of the
suffering, when we see the faces of the endangered campesino, the
poor labourer, the downtrodden native, the homeless family, the
persecuted migrant, the unemployed young person, the exploited child,
the mother who lost her child in a shoot-out because the barrio was
occupied by drug dealers, the father who lost his daughter to
enslavement. When we think of all those names and faces, our hearts
break because of so much sorrow and pain. And we are deeply moved. We
are moved because 'we have seen and heard' not a cold statistic but
the pain of a suffering humanity, our own pain, our own flesh. This
is something quite different than abstract theorising or eloquent
indignation. It moves us; it makes us attentive to others in an
effort to move forward together. That emotion which turns into
community action is not something which can be understood by reason
alone: it has a surplus of meaning which only peoples understand, and
it gives a special feel to genuine popular movements.

“Each day you are caught up in the
storms of people’s lives. You have told me about their causes, you
have shared your own struggles with me, and I thank you for that.
You, dear brothers and sisters, often work on little things, in local
situations, amid forms of injustice which you do not simply accept
but actively resist, standing up to an idolatrous system which
excludes, debases and kills. I have seen you work tirelessly for the
soil and crops of campesinos, for their lands and communities, for a
more dignified local economy, for the urbanisation of their homes and
settlements; you have helped them build their own homes and develop
neighbourhood infrastructures. You have also promoted any number of
community activities aimed at reaffirming so elementary and
undeniably necessary a right as that of the three 'L’s': land,
lodging and labour.

“This rootedness in the barrio, the
land, the office, the labour union, this ability to see yourselves in
the faces of others, this daily proximity to their share of troubles
and their little acts of heroism: this is what enables you to
practice the commandment of love, not on the basis of ideas or
concepts, but rather on the basis of genuine interpersonal encounter.
We do not love concepts or ideas; we love people. Commitment, true
commitment, is born of the love of men and women, of children and the
elderly, of peoples and communities, of names and faces which fill
our hearts. From those seeds of hope patiently sown in the forgotten
fringes of our planet, from those seedlings of a tenderness which
struggles to grow amid the shadows of exclusion, great trees will
spring up, great groves of hope to give oxygen to our world.

“So I am pleased to see that you are
working at close hand to care for those seedlings, but at the same
time, with a broader perspective, to protect the entire forest. Your
work is carried out against a horizon which, while concentrating on
your own specific area, also aims to resolve at their root the more
general problems of poverty, inequality and exclusion. I congratulate
you on this. It is essential that, along with the defence of their
legitimate rights, peoples and their social organisations be able to
construct a humane alternative to a globalisation which excludes. You
are sowers of change. May God grant you the courage, joy,
perseverance and passion to continue sowing. Be assured that sooner
or later we will see its fruits. Of the leadership I ask this: be
creative and never stop being rooted in local realities, since the
father of lies is able to usurp noble words, to promote intellectual
fads and to adopt ideological stances. But if you build on solid
foundations, on real needs and on the lived experience of your
brothers and sisters, of campesinos and natives, of excluded workers
and marginalised families, you will surely be on the right path.

“The Church cannot and must not
remain aloof from this process in her proclamation of the Gospel.
Many priests and pastoral workers carry out an enormous work of
accompanying and promoting the excluded throughout the world,
alongside cooperatives, favouring businesses, providing housing,
working generously in the fields of health, sports and education. I
am convinced that respectful cooperation with the popular movements
can revitalise these efforts and strengthen processes of change.

“Let us always have at heart the
Virgin Mary, a humble girl from small people lost on the fringes of a
great empire, a homeless mother who could turn a stable for beasts
into a home for Jesus with just a few swaddling clothes and much
tenderness. Mary is a sign of hope for peoples suffering the birth
pangs of justice. I pray that Our Lady of Mount Carmel, patroness of
Bolivia, will allow this meeting of ours to be a leaven of change.

“Lastly, I would like us all to
consider some important tasks for the present historical moment,
since we desire a positive change for the benefit of all our brothers
and sisters. We know this. We desire change enriched by the
collaboration of governments, popular movements and other social
forces. This too we know. But it is not so easy to define the content
of change – in other words, a social program which can embody this
project of fraternity and justice which we are seeking. So do not
expect a recipe from this Pope. Neither the Pope nor the Church have
a monopoly on the interpretation of social reality or the proposal of
solutions to contemporary issues. I dare say that no recipe exists.
History is made by each generation as it follows in the footsteps of
those preceding it, as it seeks its own path and respects the values
which God has placed in the human heart. I would like, all the same,
to propose three great tasks which demand a decisive and shared
contribution from popular movements.

“The first task is to put the economy
at the service of peoples. Human beings and nature must not be at the
service of money. Let us say 'no' to an economy of exclusion and
inequality, where money rules, rather than service. That economy
kills. That economy excludes. That economy destroys Mother Earth. The
economy should not be a mechanism for accumulating goods, but rather
the proper administration of our common home. This entails a
commitment to care for that home and to the fitting distribution of
its goods among all. It is not only about ensuring a supply of food
or 'decent sustenance'. Nor, although this is already a great step
forward, is it to guarantee the three 'L’s' of land, lodging and
labour for which you are working. A truly communitarian economy, one
might say an economy of Christian inspiration, must ensure peoples’
dignity and their 'general, temporal welfare and prosperity'. This
includes the three 'L’s', but also access to education, health
care, new technologies, artistic and cultural manifestations,
communications, sports and recreation. A just economy must create the
conditions for everyone to be able to enjoy a childhood without want,
to develop their talents when young, to work with full rights during
their active years and to enjoy a dignified retirement as they grow
older. It is an economy where human beings, in harmony with nature,
structure the entire system of production and distribution in such a
way that the abilities and needs of each individual find suitable
expression in social life. You, and other peoples as well, sum up
this desire in a simple and beautiful expression: 'to live well'.

“Such an economy is not only
desirable and necessary, but also possible. It is no utopia or
chimera. It is an extremely realistic prospect. We can achieve it.
The available resources in our world, the fruit of the
intergenerational labours of peoples and the gifts of creation, more
than suffice for the integral development of 'each man and the whole
man'. The problem is of another kind. There exists a system with
different aims. A system which, while irresponsibly accelerating the
pace of production, while using industrial and agricultural methods
which damage Mother Earth in the name of 'productivity', continues to
deny many millions of our brothers and sisters their most elementary
economic, social and cultural rights. This system runs counter to the
plan of Jesus.

“Working for a just distribution of
the fruits of the earth and human labour is not mere philanthropy. It
is a moral obligation. For Christians, the responsibility is even
greater: it is a commandment. It is about giving to the poor and to
peoples what is theirs by right. The universal destination of goods
is not a figure of speech found in the Church’s social teaching. It
is a reality prior to private property. Property, especially when it
affects natural resources, must always serve the needs of peoples.
And those needs are not restricted to consumption. It is not enough
to let a few drops fall whenever the poor shake a cup which never
runs over by itself. Welfare programs geared to certain emergencies
can only be considered temporary responses. They will never be able
to replace true inclusion, an inclusion which provides worthy, free,
creative, participatory and fraternal work.

“Along this path, popular movements
play an essential role, not only by making demands and lodging
protests, but even more basically by being creative. You are social
poets: creators of work, builders of housing, producers of food,
above all for people left behind by the world market. I have seen at
first hand a variety of experiences where workers united in
cooperatives and other forms of community organisation were able to
create work where there were only crumbs of an idolatrous economy.
Recuperated businesses, local fairs and cooperatives of paper
collectors are examples of that popular economy which is born of
exclusion and which, slowly, patiently and resolutely adopts
fraternal forms which dignify it. How different this is than the
situation which results when those left behind by the formal market
are exploited like slaves!

“Governments which make it their
responsibility to put the economy at the service of peoples must
promote the strengthening, improvement, coordination and expansion of
these forms of popular economy and communitarian production. This
entails improving the processes of work, providing adequate
infrastructures and guaranteeing workers their full rights in this
alternative sector. When the state and social organisations join in
working for the three 'L’s', the principles of solidarity and
subsidiarity come into play; and these allow the common good to be
achieved in a full and participatory democracy.

“The second task is to unite our
peoples on the path of peace and justice. The world’s peoples want
to be artisans of their own destiny. They want to advance peacefully
towards justice. They do not want forms of tutelage or interference
by which those with greater power subordinate those with less. They
want their culture, their language, their social processes and their
religious traditions to be respected. No actual or established power
has the right to deprive peoples of the full exercise of their
sovereignty. Whenever they do so, we see the rise of new forms of
colonialism which seriously prejudice the possibility of peace and
justice. For 'peace is founded not only on respect for human rights
but also on respect for the rights of peoples, in particular the
right to independence'. The peoples of Latin America fought to gain
their political independence and for almost two centuries their
history has been dramatic and filled with contradictions, as they
have striven to achieve full independence.

“In recent years, after any number of
misunderstandings, many Latin American countries have seen the growth
of fraternity between their peoples. The governments of the region
have pooled forces in order to ensure respect for the sovereignty of
their own countries and the entire region, which our forebears so
beautifully called the 'greater country'. I ask you, my brothers and
sisters of the popular movements, to foster and increase this unity.
It is necessary to maintain unity in the face of every effort to
divide, if the region is to grow in peace and justice.

“Despite the progress made, there are
factors which still threaten this equitable human development and
restrict the sovereignty of the countries of the 'greater country'
and other areas of our planet. The new colonialism takes on different
faces. At times it appears as the anonymous influence of mammon:
corporations, loan agencies, certain 'free trade' treaties, and the
imposition of measures of 'austerity' which always tighten the belt
of workers and the poor. The bishops of Latin America denounce this
with utter clarity in the Aparecida Document, stating that 'financial
institutions and transnational companies are becoming stronger to the
point that local economies are subordinated, especially weakening the
local states, which seem ever more powerless to carry out development
projects in the service of their populations'. At other times, under
the noble guise of battling corruption, the narcotics trade and
terrorism – grave evils of our time which call for coordinated
international action – we see states being saddled with measures
which have little to do with the resolution of these problems and
which not infrequently worsen matters.

“Similarly, the monopolising of the
communications media, which would impose alienating examples of
consumerism and a certain cultural uniformity, is another one of the
forms taken by the new colonialism. It is ideological colonialism. As
the African bishops have observed, poor countries are often treated
like 'parts of a machine, cogs on a gigantic wheel'.

“It must be acknowledged that none of
the grave problems of humanity can be resolved without interaction
between states and peoples at the international level. Every
significant action carried out in one part of the planet has
universal, ecological, social and cultural repercussions. Even crime
and violence have become globalised. Consequently, no government can
act independently of a common responsibility. If we truly desire
positive change, we have to humbly accept our interdependence.
Interaction, however, is not the same as imposition; it is not the
subordination of some to serve the interests of others. Colonialism,
both old and new, which reduces poor countries to mere providers of
raw material and cheap labour, engenders violence, poverty, forced
migrations and all the evils which go hand in hand with these,
precisely because, by placing the periphery at the service of the
centre, it denies those countries the right to an integral
development. That is inequality, and inequality generates a violence
which no police, military, or intelligence resources can control.

“Let us say 'no' to forms of
colonialism old and new. Let us say 'yes' to the encounter between
peoples and cultures.0 Blessed are the peacemakers.

“Here I wish to bring up an important
issue. Some may rightly say, 'When the Pope speaks of colonialism, he
overlooks certain actions of the Church'. I say this to you with
regret: many grave sins were committed against the native peoples of
America in the name of God. My predecessors acknowledged this, CELAM
has said it, and I too wish to say it. Like St. John Paul II, I ask
that the Church 'kneel before God and implore forgiveness for the
past and present sins of her sons and daughters'. I would also say,
and here I wish to be quite clear, as was St. John Paul II: I humbly
ask forgiveness, not only for the offences of the Church herself, but
also for crimes committed against the native peoples during the
so-called conquest of America.

“I also ask everyone, believers and
non-believers alike, to think of those many bishops, priests and
laity who preached and continue to preach the Good News of Jesus with
courage and meekness, respectfully and pacifically; who left behind
them impressive works of human promotion and of love, often standing
alongside the native peoples or accompanying their popular movements
even to the point of martyrdom. The Church, her sons and daughters,
are part of the identity of the peoples of Latin America. An identity
which here, as in other countries, some powers are committed to
erasing, at times because our faith is revolutionary, because our
faith challenges the tyranny of mammon. Today we are dismayed to see
how in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world many of our
brothers and sisters are persecuted, tortured and killed for their
faith in Jesus. This too needs to be denounced: in this third world
war, waged piecemeal, which we are now experiencing, a form of
genocide is taking place, and it must end.

“To our brothers and sisters in the
Latin American indigenous movement, allow me to express my deep
affection and appreciation of their efforts to bring peoples and
cultures together in a form of coexistence which I would call
polyhedric, where each group preserves its own identity by building
together a plurality which does not threaten but rather reinforces
unity. Your quest for an interculturalism, which combines the defence
of the rights of the native peoples with respect for the territorial
integrity of states, is for all of us a source of enrichment and
encouragement.

“The third task, perhaps the most
important facing us today, is to defend Mother Earth. Our common home
is being pillaged, laid waste and harmed with impunity. Cowardice in
defending it is a grave sin. We see with growing disappointment how
one international summit after another takes place without any
significant result. There exists a clear, definite and pressing
ethical imperative to implement what has not yet been done. We cannot
allow certain interests – interests which are global but not
universal – to take over, to dominate states and international
organisations, and to continue destroying creation. People and their
movements are called to cry out, to mobilise and to demand –
peacefully, but firmly – that appropriate and urgently-needed
measures be taken. I ask you, in the name of God, to defend Mother
Earth. I have duly addressed this issue in my Encyclical Letter
'Laudato Si’'.

“In conclusion, I would like to
repeat: the future of humanity does not lie solely in the hands of
great leaders, the great powers and the elites. It is fundamentally
in the hands of peoples and in their ability to organise. It is in
their hands, which can guide with humility and conviction this
process of change. I am with you. Let us together say from the heart:
no family without lodging, no rural worker without land, no labourer
without rights, no people without sovereignty, no individual without
dignity, no child without childhood, no young person without a
future, no elderly person without a venerable old age. Keep up your
struggle and, please, take great care of Mother Earth. I pray for you
and with you, and I ask God our Father to accompany you and to bless
you, to fill you with His love and defend you on your way by granting
you in abundance that strength which keeps us on our feet: that
strength is hope, the hope which does not disappoint. Thank you and I
ask you, please, to pray for me”.

Today, Friday 10 July, the Holy Father
will visit the detainees in Palmasola prison and will meet privately
with the bishops of Bolivia. At 12.45 p.m. local time (6.45 p.m.
Italian time) he will arrive at Viru Viru airport in Santa Cruz de la
Sierra, where he will depart by air for Paraguay, the final stage of
his apostolic trip.

- Fr. George Bugeja, O.F.M., as
coadjutor of the apostolic vicariate of Tripoli (area 1,000,000,
population 6,204,000, Catholics 50,000, priests 1, religious 11),
Libya. The bishop-elect was born in Xaghara, Malta in 1962, gave his
solemn vows in 1983, and was ordained a priest in 1986. He holds a
diploma in journalism and has served in a number of pastoral and
administrative roles including guardian of the communities of Hamrun,
Rabat, Gozo and Sliema; parish priest in Sliiema; auditor of the
ecclesiastical tribunal and official in the Congregation for the
Evangelisation of Peoples. He is currently guardian of the convent of
St. Anthony of Padua in Ghajnsielem, Gozo.

Vatican City, 10 July 2015 (VIS) –
Tomorrow, Saturday 11 July, an extraordinary edition of the Vatican
Information Service bulletin will be transmitted due to the Pope's
apostolic trip to Latin America.